A recent debate on whether anthropology is a science reminds me of what Franz Boas called "the shackles of tradition"─"for when we recognize them, we are also able to break them." Briefly, the recent "science war" began with American Anthropological Association's stated purpose at last month's general meeting. In its new long-term goal statement, AAA claims that its purpose is to "advance public understanding of humankind in all its aspects." Since the previous version of goal statement from AAA said that the association would "advance anthropology as the science that studies humankind in all its aspects." This replacement apparently signals a shift away from "championing scientific study" to "promoting public understanding.” This also instantly led to some anthropologists" strong rejection to AAA leadership, concerning that it is rejecting science. It has prompted some blog posts discussing this shift in anthropology, such as "No Science, Please. We're Anthropologists" (by Alice Dreger), "Anthropology Association Rejecting Science?" (by Peter Wood), and "Science Wars? Anthropologists Debate Whether Science Is Central to Their Discipline" (by Matthew C. Nisbet). While some (i.e. Sarah Hrdy and Alice Dreger) critique AAA's stated purpose as "going backwards" and "abandoning the goal of using anthropology to try to understand human nature," urge AAA officials to put "science" back in anthropology and AAA's mission statement. Daniel Lende indicates, there's nothing wrong in doing scientific studies in anthropology; anthropology is just more than a science. "We do science, and we do other things," Lende said. Then why do some anthropologists (mostly biological & medical anthropologists) who insist on scientific rigor get so agitated on this issue? -- If you guys are interested in this issue, here's a good site that lists many of the online articles available: http://tinyurl.com/2cqp4vf For further reading: AAA's long-term goal statement: http://tinyurl.com/27ns7a6 Daniel Lende's article: http://tinyurl.com/24ceesh Some anthropologists and social science enthusiasts dicussing on Twitter: http://twitter.com/search?q=%23aaafail Alice Dreger's article: http://tinyurl.com/2dl9srf Peter Wood's article: http://tinyurl.com/3ym3pra Matthew C. Nisbet's article: http://bigthink.com/ideas/25231 ※ 引述《Ranch99 (何不食夢貘)》之銘言： : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/science/10anthropology.html?_r=1 --

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